‘The very successful integrated approach that the school makes towards developing the social and emotional aspects of learning has been widely recognised both nationally and locally, and ensures outstanding care, guidance and support for students.’
Ofsted Report 2007

learning

'Positive relationships are a cornerstone of the academy's success and help to establish an atmosphere conducive to learning.'
Ofsted Report 2012

discovery

'The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be on course when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.'
Albert Einstein

endeavour

We look for opportunities to encourage young people to push themselves to new heights. We are constantly delighted by the way they rise to this challenge, support each other with strong leadership and develop qualities that can help them face life's challenges with a 'can do' attitude.'

fulfilment

It's cool to succeed at Hele's and we celebrate achievements and milestones equally. Often the greatest fulfilment comes when difficult challenges are faced and barriers overcome. Every child, regardless of circumstances, can achieve and be fulfilled.

Welcome to Hele’s School

I take great pleasure in welcoming you to Hele’s School! We are a school with a tradition of academic excellence, high aspirations and a big heart. A school that students and staff are proud to attend. A school where we never compromise our insistence that everyone is valued, learns, enjoys and achieves. Expectations for staff and students are high, but very simple; work hard both to do things right and to do the right thing…even when no one is looking!

Our mission is to support and challenge each individual, adult or child, to be the best they can be. We have a ‘no excuses’ philosophy based on growth mindset principles, which reinforces our belief that all of us can always improve, and that nothing is impossible. Quite simply, it isn’t about being ‘the best’ at something, but being better than we were yesterday or today. It is for this reason that recognising and celebrating endeavour, as well as achievement, is something we hold dear.

We work hard at providing an inclusive, calm, and purposeful learning environment, and aim to ensure all students have opportunities to enrich their learning, to discover new skills and interests, and to master others through providing a breadth of curricular and extra-curricular opportunities to excite and engage young people, wherever their interests or aspirations may lie.

I am extremely proud to lead a dedicated and enthusiastic team of staff who are passionate about working with young people, and are committed to ensuring that those entrusted in our care get the best life chances possible. Everything we do is shaped by our determination to ensure that each and every child has a positive and memorable experience of school; that they thrive, flourish and, crucially, are happy. We focus on opportunities to develop teaching and learning at every turn and, importantly, teachers at Hele’s have a resolve to be the best they can be in the classroom; our core purpose being to remove barriers to learning so that young people can be inspired, can aspire and can achieve. In return we expect a buy in to our belief that we all have an active role to play in making our school a great place to be, which manifests itself in every child displaying the highest standards of commitment to learning, pride and care.

These are exciting times for our school as we journey towards, and beyond, excellence and we would be delighted if you were to choose to share that journey with us! With your help, we will build on the successes of Hele’s School to date and continue with our quest to not just meet, but to exceed, our aspiration to be a school that is beyond outstanding in every measure.

Please do take the time to explore our website to find out more about us, and don’t hesitate to contact us should you require any further information about our school. Better still, come and see us for yourself! We delight in showing people our school and rest assured that a very warm welcome awaits you. Visitors always comment on the purposeful, caring and happy ethos of the school, so what better way for you to find out more about our vision and values than to come and experience them first-hand?

We look forward to working with you in partnership in the future, and to welcoming you to Hele’s School.

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Latest News

All students in Years 7 – 9 should have received the Aspiration Week booklet today in school. Applications for places open on Monday and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. The booklet is also available here for you to read through. Deadline for returns is Thursday 15th December.

Term ends for all students on Friday 16th December at 1pm. Packed lunches for those students in receipt of Free School Meals will be available for collection from the school canteen at 1pm. Please note that given the earlier finish there will be no facility for students to buy food at lunchtime.

Lessons will continue as normal on the last day, being interrupted only by a 30-minute slot when students will be entertained by the staff pantomime…oh, yes they will! To fully embrace the spirit of giving at Christmas, we will be supporting the Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Appeal. For a donation of £1 students may come into school in sensible ‘mufti’ on the last day of term, some of which should be Christmas themed. If students wish to make further donations to this popular charity we will be collecting throughout the day and hope collectively to raise a substantial amount for this worthy cause.

Sixteen classes, led by their English teachers, are competing to win the Accelerated Reader League Cup. The students in year 7 and Year 8 take part in daily Drop Everything And Read sessions and are required to take quizzes after reading a book. The class with the best combined scores on the book quizzes will win the AR League Cup; this round of the AR competition will finish at the end of this term. The current standings show Miss Norman’s Year 8 class in the lead with an average percentage correct score of 94.3%. The second placed class comes from year 7 and is taught by Ms Oram and Mr Fonseca with an impressive 89.7% score. The third placed class have a score of 82.9% correct; the bronze medal class are Year 8s led by Miss Hammond.

All in all, the 400 or so students have read an amazing 1,289 books, and a total of 43,433,482 words since the beginning of September. That’s a lot of reading and the classes are also managing to score very highly on their quizzes, showing that they understand the books they have chosen to read. The race to win the AR League Cup has just started however, so there is everything to play for and the teams at the top could well be challenged by students in the rest of the classes. Each quiz taken successfully will add valuable points to the class totals so everyone’s efforts count towards the outcome of the competition. We can expect to see a big rise in the numbers of books and words read by these committed readers!